3 ms·
It is an overly-primitive metaphor for a computer--one that has pulled most hardware down to its level. The B5000 people understood this before the mistake was
by chaganated 6y ago
It is an overly-primitive metaphor for a computer--one that has pulled most hardware down to its level. The B5000 people understood this before the mistake was made. The PARC and Symbolics people understood this during/after the mistake was made.
The computer may not know the difference, but having a way to let the compiler distinguish between the two opens up so many avenues for compile-time checks, smoother migration paths (i.e. ASCII/UTF-16/UTF-8), and better optimizations.
- rbanffy 6y ago> but having a way to let the compiler distinguish between the two But then you are using the language to teach the language. I think C is most valuable to teach how a simple computer works as a foundation for exploring what more interesting computers could do and how we could program them (at this point, probably in languages that better match the abstraction you want).
- chaganated 6y agoI've been doing industrial systems in C for 20 years. It stopped being a good model of how computers work around the same time we stopped hooking them up to TVs with RF splitters. I would rather not inflict that brain damage upon the children. If any of them want to start writing drivers, I'm sure they will take to pointer arithmetic like ducks to water--with or without C.